Over the years we all have seen the advance of composites in motorsport. It is nothing new, but it has got to a stage where even carbon fiber parts are being regularly fabricated by racers at home for their projects. Many people think the term composites refers to the more exotic materials like carbon fiber and Kevlar but it also includes fiberglass which has a history going back to the 1930s. In fact, the first composite boat was recorded as being built in 1937. My personal composite fabrication goes back around fifty years to my days in the Boys Scouts where the various troops in town got together to build fiberglass kayaks. My biggest memory was the smell and how difficult it was to bond the two halves of the kayaks together with GRP strips all around the inside of the boats. Which brings us to the disclaimer part of this article. A competent person can perform miracles in DIY composite fabrication BUT there are risks involved. To your health because of the chemicals used in the manufacture of the individual materials required to make a composite panel firstly but there are some things an amateur should just not tackle building. Imagine the severe loss in downforce you could experience if a self-built wing or splitter failed. You are not just risking your car but your life. It is best to leave that sort of thing to the experts like our friends at Klaus Composites and Nine Lives Racing. The Clan Crusader Modsports car I built with my friend Henry Sinclair was a fiberglass monocoque and it required fiberglass work but we were not fabricating anything, it was more a case of bonding things like a plywood floor and the rollcage into place. Now I have gone the full 360 degrees and it is time to get my hands (or gloves) dirty again working with composites.
The Clan Crusader was a low volume sports car built using a fibreglass monocoque. 122
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